ND's Keckley gets to the point

May 20, 2006

It came down to one stark reality for Notre Dame tennis player Ryan Keckley. "You win the match, we're going," he said. "You lose, more than likely we're not going." Going -- or not going -- to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, a milepost the Irish had in their minds all season. Keckley and teammate Barry King were the two Notre Dame singles players left on the court last Saturday, protecting a 3-2 lead over host Texas A&M. Down a set and behind in the second, it didn't look good for King. That, in essence, left it up to Keckley. Texas A&M takes its tennis seriously, attracting hundreds of fans, all of whom seemed to be in Keckley's ear in the climactic moments, jeering. He loved it. But even those ill-intentioned, adrenaline-amping decibels couldn't drown out his own jangling awareness of the situation. "I was extremely nervous," he said, "because if you lose that match, you're not only letting yourself down, you're letting your teammates down, more importantly." Keckley described his experience this week on the phone from Stanford University, site of the Sweet 16, the coveted destination his clinching win secured. His opponent, Brett Joelson, beat back three match points before Keckley finished off a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory that confirmed Notre Dame's self-image as a Top 16 team. Narrow losses early in the season to Duke, North Carolina and Virginia allowed doubt to Jason Kelly Commentary cloud that perception, in the rankings and in their own minds. Those scars healed and the mental calluses produced a tougher attitude the 18th-ranked Irish took into the tournament. "When the time came and we had an opportunity to beat Texas A&M," Keckley said, "we finally got the job done and got to come here." As a reward, Notre Dame will play undefeated and No. 1 Georgia today, another shot at that elusive win over an elite program. Like his performance in the decisive match at Texas A&M, Keckley's confidence on the eve of the main event showed no sign of wear and tear from a long and grinding season. On the contrary ... "We're definitely going out there with the mindset that we're going to compete," Keckley said, "we're going to fight, we're going to win." Leave it to Keckley to articulate it in that cut-to-the-chase kind of way. His dominance as a singles player in junior tennis and at St. Joseph's High School overshadowed a love for doubles and its rapid-fire action. Now a junior at Notre Dame, the 6-foot-1, 160-pound team co-MVP plays both No. 4 singles and No. 1 doubles (with Eric Langenkamp) the way he talks. He gets right to the point. "He's very quick, very athletic. A lot of guys like that tend to play long, grindy points where they loop the ball and so forth," Irish coach Bobby Bayliss said. "Ryan doesn't do that. He's very aggressive, takes the ball on the rise and really attacks at every opportunity. ... You've got have a little bit of riverboat gambler in you to be a good doubles player." Those instincts made doubles a natural place to contribute as a freshman and sophomore when injuries and teammates who "stepped up when I didn't" kept Keckley out of the singles lineup. This season, after a summer of targeted effort, he established a secure spot in singles to go along with his continued role as doubles dice-roller. When the season came down to him last Saturday in a singles match, he relished the atmosphere and the pressure. That's the riverboat gambler in him, the part of his personality that still prefers doubles for the snug way it fits him on and off the court. "It's more of a fast-paced game. Growing up, I never had much patience, so it kind of suited me more," Keckley said. "It's a little more in-your-face."